In an undated photo provided by the Stanford News Service, Henry Taube is shown at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. Taube, a Nobel Prize-winning pioneer of chemistry, has died. He was 89. Taube was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1983 for work in explaining chemical reactions in everything from photosynthesis in plants to batteries and fuel cells. Taube died Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2005, at his home on the Stanford University campus, according to school officials. (AP Photo/Stanford News Service, Chuck Painter) ** MAGS OUT, , MANDATORY CREDIT ** Ran on: 11-19-2005
Henry Taube had been a member of the Stanford faculty since 1962. Ran on: 11-19-2005
Henry Taube had been a member of the Stanford faculty since 1962.

Henry Taube, the Nobel Prize-winning Stanford University chemist who plumbed the secrets of how electrons behave in chemical reactions, has died.

Professor Taube died Wednesday in his home on the Stanford campus. He was 89.

"Each new insight into how the atoms, in their interactions, express themselves in structure and transformations provides a thrill," he said in his speech accepting the 1983 Nobel Prize for chemistry.

A member of the Stanford faculty since 1962, Professor Taube enjoyed meeting with students in their laboratories, bantering about their work and perhaps wagering a bottle of wine on a particular chemical problem.

His particular field was the study of oxidation-reduction reactions, and he demonstrated that electrons move between molecules via temporary bridges. He also said, lightheartedly, that it was almost impossible to explain his work in less than a year's time.

"Henry was a scientist's scientist and a dominant figure in the field of inorganic chemistry," said Stanford chemistry professor emeritus Jim Collman, his friend and collaborator. "I knew him for 40 years. He was an unparalleled personality and really had no counterparts."

He was a native of Neudorf in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, and a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan. He received a doctorate in 1940 from UC Berkeley and taught there from 1940 to 1941.

"I became deeply interested in chemistry soon after I came to Berkeley," Professor Taube recalled years later. "Chemistry was in the air. The fire was lit there quite early in my stay."

In addition to the Nobel Prize, he received two Guggenheim Fellowships and the 1977 National Medal of Science.

"Henry had a remarkable style as a research mentor," said his friend and former student, UC Santa Barbara chemist Peter Ford. "He would make his rounds through the laboratory, often with a beer in hand, to chat with students, frequently beginning a conversation with the question, 'What's new?' Often an intellectual discussion would be accompanied by a wager on a particular result, a bottle of wine being a common currency."

"He made chemistry not only challenging and stimulating, but a lot of fun as well," Ford said.

Professor Taube was a man of broad interests who enjoyed classical music, gardening, mystery novels and baseball. He liked to describe himself as "just a farm boy from Saskatchewan."

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Mary, and by children Karl Taube of Riverside, Heinrich Taube of Chicago and Linda Taube of Galway, Ireland. Plans for a memorial service are pending.